Memphis business leaders praise Robertson as chamber’s interim CEO
When it was clear letters and phone calls would not be enough to convince former South African President Nelson Mandela to fly to Memphis to accept the Freedom Award in 2000, Beverly Robertson got on a plane to see him in person.
After that visit, Robertson, then president of the National Civil Rights Museum, got Mandela to agree to attend the awards.
When faced with a challenge, that’s the kind of leader Robertson is, said Rose Jackson Flenorl, who spent years working alongside Robertson on the museum board and several other Memphis organizations.
“She didn’t argue the point,” Jackson Flenorl said days after the Greater Memphis Chamber announced Robertson would soon be the new interim leader of the organization. “She just went to make
it happen ... For her it’s not just a job, it’s a calling. When you view something as a calling, you don’t worry about the naysayers. You worry about moving forward and getting it done.”
Robertson, who will take over as interim chief executive officer of the chamber following the sudden death of Phil Trenary, is the first black woman to hold the position.
Jackson Flenorl said the chamber “got it right” with Robertson’s appointment. She will be working part-time through the end of the year and will take over full-time in January.
When Nike executive and chamber Vice Chairman Willie Gregory recommended Robertson for the position, chamber Chairman Richard Smith knew of her but didn’t know her personally. That evening he checked on her record and by morning, he was convinced, Gregory said.
“It just felt right for our situation at the chamber that Beverly would be the one to bring us together,” said Gregory, who spent 13 years serving with Robertson on the museum board.
Robertson, who could not be reached for comment, has a long history working in the Memphis community.
In the nearly 20 years she spent at the head of the museum, she also welcomed other national and international figures including the Dalai Lama, Oprah Winfrey, former President Bill Clinton and Colin Powell.
At the same time, she led the effort to raise more than $43 million to fund a massive museum renovation that included adding more than 40 new films, oral histories and interactive exhibits.
Around the time of the renovation, the National Museum of African American History and Culture was poised to open in Washington, D.C. Because of that, Robertson had the additional challenge to keep the Memphis museum relevant not just to local residents but to tourists .
According to Darrell Cobbins, who sits on the boards for the museum and the chamber and has known Robertson for about two decades, Robertson’s work helped raise the profile of the museum and fuel interest and attendance.
“That’s clearly a testament to her leadership,” Cobbins said. “We didn’t get here without her.”
Before working for the museum, Robertson started her corporate career at Holiday Inn.
She began there as a part-time reservations agent while also working as an elementary school teacher.
She left teaching when she moved into a management training program for the hotel chain. By the time she left the company 19 years later, she had worked her way up to director of communications for Holiday Inn Worldwide.
Most recently, through Trust Marketing — the public relations firm Robertson runs with her husband, Howard — she planned and managed the chamber’s Ascend Business Development Program. Ascend pairs minority and women small business owners with leaders at large corporations for a yearlong mentoring program designed to help small businesses grow and thrive.
“If past performance is any indication of future performance, she is a proven leader,” said Mark Yates, chief visionary officer of the Black Business Association of Memphis.
It’s that mix of experience as a corporate employee, a community leader and a business owner that makes Robertson able to understand the needs of all the kinds of business leaders she will represent in her new role, Yates added.
Although her appointment is being celebrated across the Memphis business community, Robertson’s role is temporary.
She has signed on to work as chamber CEO for one year but could stay in the role another two or three years.
Not only has Robertson proved her ability as a leader over her decades working in Memphis, but she has also proved she is able to groom other leaders to take on new responsibilities as well, said Lori Spicer-Robertson, chief communications and engagement officer for the United Way of the Mid-South.
Spicer-Robertson has known Robertson since she was a teenager in high school with Robertson’s son. The two reconnected after Spicer-Robertson returned to Memphis after years away for college and work in the Washington, D.C. non-profit sector. Robertson served as a mentor to Spicer-Robertson.
Still, the most important lesson she learned from Robertson was to know when you’ve done all you can in your role and when it’s time to move on to make way for the next wave of leaders.
“When it was time for her to transition out of her role (at the National Civil Rights Museum), she was big on succession planning when her time was up,” Spicer-Robinson said. “I can appreciate that in any leader. That takes vulnerability and that takes emotional intelligence ...
“She can definitely be the person to sit at the helm to advance the work of the chamber.”
Desiree Stennett can be reached at desiree.stennett@ commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2738 and on Twitter: @desi_stennett